This time last year, as America approached the Independence Day holiday, Joe Biden took a moment to pat himself on the back about the economy. The White House boasted that “the cost of a 4th of July cookout in 2021 is down $0.16 from last year.”

It was a ridiculous statement to make. Think about it. A growing consensus in the country is calling for the end of the penny because it is utterly valueless. Each penny costs at least two pennies to make. When labor experts factored in time and effort, they found that it is actually cheaper to leave spare change on the ground than to pick it up and put it in your pocket. And yet the Biden administration was so desperate to manufacture any hint of good economic news that it felt compelled to crow about saving us less than we’d typically find beneath a single couch cushion.

Fast-forward to this year. Those 16 pennies are long gone. That same Fourth of July cookout is 17% more expensive than it was last year. Not 17 cents; 17 percent.

Check out the updated grocery bill. Last year, two pounds of ground beef averaged $8.20; this year it’s $9.58. A package of hot dogs went from $3.80 to $5.22. Cheese is up $0.29 a pound. Ice cream is up $0.66 per half gallon.

Last year, Biden bragged that the American Rescue Plan was the reason for the wonderful savings. His $2 trillion boondoggle was actually the boulder that started the inflationary avalanche now burying our economy. The government pumped too much money into the economy, incentivized people not to return to work, then engaged in an all-out attack on energy sector production that has negatively impacted every single business and wage earner in the country.

The Federal Reserve has recently taken to tightening the money supply by raising interest rates. Markets have been roiled by the action, but there remain few options to correct the problem. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen say a recession can be avoided, but these are the same people who repeatedly told us last year that inflation was “transitory.” Many economists believe a recession is not only possible but assured. We may be in a recession already.

Biden is undeterred — or maybe the better term is clueless — about the destructive impact of his administration’s economic policies and the laws coming out of the Democrat-controlled Congress. Just like last year’s empty boasts, he’s patting himself on the back for pushing a 90-day gas tax holiday, which won’t even cover the rise in cost of this year’s Independence Day cookout. Like last year’s $0.16 “windfall,” the gas tax holiday is just another gimmick to get people’s minds off the terrible job Democrats are doing at managing the economy.

Don’t be surprised if the administration tries to buy votes in the fall with inflation stimulus checks or some other scheme to keep America whistling past the economic graveyard.